Six years ago, Brunei decided to implement “harsh Islamic laws”, such as death by stoning, as a punishment to adultery and homosexual relations. All across the world, people condemned this for its obvious human rights violations. There were widespread boycotts and calls for divestment in opposition to this extreme decision. On the island of Borneo, a sultanate of nearly half a million delayed carrying out these provisions; however, starting April 3rd, will go ahead with them. Now Human Rights Groups have been reignited in their fight against these statutes. Not only has it escalated the punishment against homosexual relations, which was previously up to ten years in prison, to possible death, it is also bringing forth statutes that would allow amputations in response to other felonies such as robbery or adultery. This introduction of laws is a cruel violation of human rights and should be condemned and fought by Brunei’s allies and countries which they conduct business with. Simply protesting by rights groups will not stop or fully condemn the decision by the Brunei government. If the major powers allow this to occur, there is no telling how far it will be taken. The mere suspicion of such relations may be acted upon and could lead to a large amount of deaths, official or not, and may even escalate into a revolution in some more conservative areas. The modern world should be evolving past such outdated laws and countries need to work together in order to effectively ensure human/civil rights are secured on a global scale. A country needs to do more than pushing for guaranteed human rights within their own border, but rather they need to do their part in aiding movements for such rights in countries still way behind in the evolution. Especially if countries believe in the domino effect, such laws could theoretically spread to feeble countries who may follow by similar laws but believes it’s not enough. This reintroduction of old and harsh laws should be a headline everywhere and should receive the attention a more significant country would.
